Unofficial news and tips about Google

July 6, 2008

Export iGoogle Feeds to OPML

I've heard many people complaining that iGoogle doesn't offer an option to export feeds. Some of them wanted to use a feed reader like Google Reader, while others intended to migrate to competing services like Netvibes or Pageflakes.

Here's what you need to do if you want to export the feeds from your iGoogle page in the OPML format:

1. Make sure you are logged in to a Google account. If not, log in here.

2. Download iGoogle's backup file and open it in a text editor like Notepad. Select the entire content of the file (Ctrl+A) and copy it to the clipboard (Ctrl+C).

3. Paste the code below and then click on "Convert to OPML". (If you are concerned about sharing private data, you should know that this is just a client-side script that doesn't store your data and it doesn't send it to a third-party service.)

[If you see this text, you're probably reading the post in a feed reader. Go to the source to load an iframe used for conversion.]

4. Copy the result and save it to a new XML file: igoogle-subscriptions.xml. Use a text editor like Notepad.

To import the file in Netvibes, click the "Add button", select "Feeds" and click "browse" next to "Import OPML", then pick the XML file you've created and click "Import". Most feed readers have an option to import a list of subscriptions.

I tested the script for converting iGoogle's backup file in IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, using Google Reader and Netvibes as destinations.